


Coffee Date

by Bitterblue



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-25
Updated: 2015-11-25
Packaged: 2018-05-03 07:29:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5282126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bitterblue/pseuds/Bitterblue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The coffee shop au you didn't know you wanted.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coffee Date

The place is always packed right after her two o'clock class gets out on Fridays, but it's become an indulgent habit that Nora's loathe to break. What better way to kick off a weekend of studying until she thinks she'll keel over from the boredom of her political science texts punctuated by a few blissful, indulgent hours of Skyrim than a really nice coffee from the best coffeeshop on campus, which more often than not involves shameless flirting from the best barista on campus?

It's a tight squeeze to get up to the counter, and for a moment Nora almost reconsiders before she spots the girl working the espresso machine. They exchange a brief smile before Nora orders her coffee and winds her way over to the pick-up counter. She has a shared composition class with Piper, but they never seem to talk there. Just here, while she makes a perfect latte every time.

"Hey, Blue! Coffee." Nora snorts, rolling her eyes a little. She's been 'Blue' all semester.

"I have a name,  _Piper_. It's written on the cup." She turns it so Piper can see the clearly scrawled 'Nora' written there. Piper grins, shrugs, and takes the sharpie tucked over her ear and scribbles out Nora's name, writing  _Blue_ in its place.

"Yeah, I know. It says Blue. Right there. Got absolutely nothing to do with your hoodie. Which you maybe live in. Do you have like six of them, all identical? Inquiring minds want to know. And I have a bet going with Deacon—"

"Hey," interrupts the boy at the cash register. "Do not bring me into your crush story, Piper."

Piper grins again and waves her hand dismissively. "Ignore him."

Nora's laughing, too, now, half embarrassed and totally charmed. She knows she's blushing. She takes the coffee cup, and, surprising herself (and, she thinks, Piper) asks, "Are you doing anything this weekend?" She immediately regrets it as Piper's smile fades a little.

"I've got a killer assignment due Monday, Blue," she starts, sounding regretful. It doesn't soothe the sting of the rejection, gentle as it is. Nora blushes, and shrugs, waving her hand in the hope that they can never discuss this ever again and also she might be allowed to go crawl into a hole somewhere and die.

"It's cool, sorry, forget I asked."

"No, no, I would. I totally would. I would for sure. But, like, I have to write a profile of a person for my journalism class  _and_ it's supposed to run in the student paper next week, and I've kind of...not...done any of that. At all." She trails off with a sigh. Nora's ready to go home and commence pretending this never happened. At least the coffee will be good to console her. As she turns to go, Piper says a little too loudly, "Wait! Blue! I have a  _really_ good idea."

* * *

 

Piper's dorm is unmistakable, on the second story of one of the women only dorms clustered at the north edge of campus, once Nora is buzzed inside and walks up the stairs a few hours later. The door is heavily decorated in what looks, at a distance, like newsprint and which turns out to be wrapping paper that's been printed to look like newsprint from an all-cat newspaper.  _The Kitten Gazette_. Nora's charmed all over again, and knocks.

"Just a second!" The door opens almost a minute later with Piper, hair dripping down her back, in a plaid button-down and jeans. No shoes. She smiles, and steps back. "Sorry. I thought I should maybe shower so I wouldn't smell like hot coffee shop and desperation and I got the timing kind of bad. I was naked." If she notices the flustered sound Nora makes in response, she's good enough to ignore it. She steps back with her arm held out wide. "Welcome to, uh...well, to be honest a lot of us in the building call this end of campus Diamond City after one of the football bros called us  _Dyke_  City—women's dorm—because we're a bunch of fucking gems, but I guess that joke falls a little flat without the explanation. Welcome to my room, at least."

Piper's room is as much like her as the door had been. It's got her bed and the oversized desk that come standard in the majority of the dorm buildings in the space of a particularly large walk-in closet, with most of the remaining floor space taken up by half a dozen floor and table lamps on stacked shelves and boxes stuffed with papers. Piper gestures at the single desk chair for her to sit, and then perches on the edge of her bed herself, legs crossing. Nora sits, facing her, close enough to prop her elbows on Piper's knees (though she resists the urge).

"So," says Piper, picking up her notebook and pen, "tell me about being in the cadet corps as a woman."

Nora laughs a little, eyebrows raising. "Could you narrow it down a little? That's very broad."

"Okay, true. Tell me a little about your family first, I guess."

It's the strangest first date—Nora's not even sure it is a date, really. Piper writes and writes, asking questions about Nora's life before going to the university from her childhood pet (a German shepherd mix, Dogmeat) to her siblings (a much younger brother, Shaun). Nora explains that her family couldn't have afforded the school if she wasn't willing to do the ROTC program, and the army had guaranteed her tuition through law school, if that's still what she wants to do. She thinks it is. Throughout, Piper seems to hang on her every word, diligently recording and smiling the whole time. At a few points, Nora manages to interrupt and get in a question or two of her own (a younger sister Natalie, no pets, journalism major on a massive scholarship that she tries to downplay). By the time Piper sets down her pen over an hour later, though, Nora thinks she's done most of the talking.

"Thanks, Blue," Piper says, sounding genuinely grateful enough that Nora decides she doesn't mind how strange the date-not-date has been. "I know it's a weird kind of date. But, I guess, like...it's not like I'm going to take you out for coffee." She laughs a little at her own joke. "And work is kind of consuming my whole  _life_. Newspaper and coffee. But," she leans forward, propping her elbows on her knees, "getting the chance to talk to you a little bit every week has been kind of keeping me going this semester. I hope this weird...thing...I've dragged you into hasn't totally put you off. I can be fun! Probably." Piper looks so earnest, Nora has to smile in return, leaning forward a little, too.

"Probably?"

"Yes. Probably."

"I'm going to need to see some evidence of that," Nora teases her.

"Oh, trying to lawyer me right now? I'm not sure that's fair, Blue. You have a major advantage, being distractingly pretty." Piper delivers it like it's a major blow, smirking victoriously.

"That is  _not_ true and it's really calling into question your journalistic integrity that you'd claim such things." Nora crosses her arms over her chest while Piper splutters. Shifting forward in the chair, Nora closes the distance between them and kisses her lightly. After a surprised moment, Piper returns the kiss with enthusiasm. "See?" Nora asks as they pull apart a little to breathe, "you're kissing your subject for the interview. That can't possibly be up journalistic standards." Piper laughs, hitting her in the shoulder, and leans in to kiss her again. She slips off the bed and into Nora's lap, still kissing her. Piper tastes like coffee.

It's the best date-not-date Nora's ever had.


End file.
